Key Difference: Top-up is a way to replenish a prepaid mobile account without extending the validity period, whereas recharge is a way to replenish a prepaid mobile account with the extension of validity period. However, now as the validity of life time is associated with the accounts, they are used in the same context to refill the mobile account.

Recharge and top-up both the terms sound familiar. We had been using these terms in our daily lives. There are two ways of using the mobile account. Pre paid and post paid. In pre paid a customer pays the amount in advance and then uses the money on the account to make calls, send sms’s, etc., whereas in postpaid connections the person uses these services and later the amount is paid. Most of the people prefer prepaid connections as they can keep a track of the amount they are spending on mobile and put a limit on it accordingly. On the other hand, in a post paid connection the person sometimes land up spending more money on bills as compared to what he intended to spend on mobile bills.

Validity of the connection defines the active mode of a mobile connection or we can say that a person is able to use the services of mobile phones like making a call, sending an sms, within the time interval specified by the validity period. This validity is defined by the connection providers; it can range from few days to number of years, depending upon the service provider. Now, if the validity gets expired and you need to make phone calls, then in that case, you have to recharge the mobile account. Recharge would increase the validity period and gets the specified amount in the account. This recharge can be obtained by buying a coupon. In case, the validity has not expired then you might not recharge it, you can just top-up the amount, means it will not affect the validity, it will just increase the balance and you have to use the balance within the validity period, otherwise it may lapse.

Now these terms are used interchangeably as in recent years the validity defined by the service providers is considered life time validity. It generally refers to a validity for number of years and thus recharge and top up are now used in the same context; i.e. to add the amount in the balance without worrying the validity period. Now the companies provide the online facility to recharge the mobile account.

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